24502: Durban (reply): 24494; Arthur's Gunning down the poor (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Lance Durban <lpdurban@yahoo.com>

Quick question for Charles Arthur and his Haiti Support Group:
Do you condone a situation where "local people are shooting at
the police and the UN", to quote a phrase in your post?  In the
UK, if a local gang starts shooting at the police, does it get
your support simply because its members may be poor and black?

For your information, in Haiti "local people shooting at the
police" are most certainly NOT the 85% of the population that
you describe as "excluded and effectively disenfranchised".  I
am sure you realize that, but your editorial technique of tying
the two together seems to invite misunderstanding.

In Haiti, the violently-inclined "local people" you write about
probably number a couple of hundred at most.  They are the
number one reason the country is going nowhere, and it should be
pointed out, they do NOT include the thousands of folks who
might STILL be inclined to vote for Aristide if he were able to
run again.  This critical differentiation, already lost to many
of the anti-Aristide Haitian elite, is hardly helped when you
fuzz it over so casually.

Lance Durban